Hamilton School District’s new facilities director has his work cut out for him. He faces a district with decades-old, decaying buildings too small to fit their current students.

Some of the schools hold class in storage closets. In another, a weight gym and metal shop share the same space. There are regular problems with leaks, mold, drainage and heating in the schools.

A preliminary estimate of the price to fix the district’s schools totaled out at $134 million over the next five years. The district had gone without a facilities director for more than a year and used cheap “band-aid” fixes for far longer, Superintendent James Parla said. John Miranda, a former state police officer, said he accepted the job as the district’s facilities director with his eyes wide open.

“I couldn’t come into it thinking there are no problems here,” he said.

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His appointment did not come without objections. Board Member Patricia DelGiudice said she thought the district needed a supervisor with engineering experience to oversee the extensive work the district needs.

“We have clear issues in our buildings,” DelGiudice said. “We need someone with the right experience. This is a major mistake we’re making.”

Two other board members, Al Gayzik and Richard Kanka, voted with her but Miranda’s appointment still went through 6 to 3.

Miranda said he did not see the criticism as a problem. He was a part of the state police’s facilities division since 1999, when he started as a project manager.

“You are going to have detractors wherever you go,” he said.

Walking through one closed-off portion of Hamilton High West during a tour, he walked on the concrete between the floor joists. The floor, he said, was pulled up so the school can clean and renovate the room after flooding problems. The concrete was poured in years before to keep the joists from rotting away, he said.

“Some (schools) need a little bit of work,” he said. “Some just really, really need a lot of work.”

One of those needing a lot of work is West, where last month the district closed down a portion of the school that tested positive for bacteria, lead-based paint and mold. Board Member Joe Malagrino asked, while touring Hamilton High West, why the district does not cut its losses with the building and find another way for the district to house the school’s more than 1,000 students.

The board vice-president’s reasoning might not be out of the ballpark, as the cleanup project in the building alone has already racked up a quarter-million dollar price tag, and Miranda said the idea should be evaluated.

“At some point you have to sit down and see if you are throwing good money after bad,” he said.

He said it’s possible it could cost enough to rehabilitate West that, for the same amount of money, the district could build a newer school that would cost less to maintain.

The district’s other schools have their fair share of problems. Special education students at Yardville Elementary School do not have a class in their building, but instead in two modular classroom buildings outside the school.

Students at Sunnybrae Elementary School take class in one of the storage rooms, and the cafeteria functions as a gymnasium, assembly space, art, music and occupational therapy classroom.

During a February board meeting, Malagrino objected to what he saw as unhealthy conditions at West. After the board raised its concerns over West, they scheduled the visits, which run through April.

The board and the public will get a better idea of the district’s needs, and the costs, after Miranda, Parla and the district’s new engineering and architectural firms finish a more thorough review, of which those tours are a part.

During the tours of the first nine schools, representatives from both have taken pages of notes, dozens of pictures, and noted the the leaky roofs, old carpeting, bad lighting and cramped classroom spaces they’ve seen.

The district’s initial estimate of $134 million for updates, renovations and repairs could change as a result of that review, and could go up. Board President Jeff Hewitson said the district needed to be ready for significant spending to keep its schools open.

“We’re going to massage that number, but it could go up,” he said.

Superintendent James Parla, Hewitson and the other members of the board have left their last resort as frequently the last solution mentioned: a bond that would have to go before voters. Other solutions involve energy grants, which pay for updates to lighting, heating and other systems through energy savings, and matching federal grants for capital projects.

Parla addressed the issue in a release on the district’s website last month.

“It is no secret that our schools are in dire need of maintenance, repair and refurbishment. Many essential components of our buildings, such as heating and ventilation, flooring, electrical, basic structure and much more are failing and are beyond useful life,” he said.